Researchers identify potent neutralising antibodies

Chinese researchers have successfully identified multiple highly potent neutralising antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, from convalescent plasma by highthroughput single-cell sequencing, according to a new study published in Cell.

Generated by the human immune system, neutralising antibodies can effectively prevent viruses from infecting cells.

New results from animal studies showed that neutralising antibodies provides a potential cure for Covid19 as well as a means for short-term prevention, which marks a major milestone in the fight against the pandemic.

According to the research team led by Sunney Xie, director of the Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics at Peking

University, antibody drugs, as a kind of biologics, have been successfully applied to treat viruses like AIDS, Ebola and MERS.

However, it is often time-consuming to develop neutralising antibodies suitable for clinical use, taking months or even years.

By using their expertise in singlecell genomics, the team collaborated with researchers at Beijing YouAn Hospital to collect blood samples from over 60 convalescent patients, among which 14 highly potent neutralising antibodies were selected from 8,558 antigen-binding IgG1+ clonotypes.

Their animal experiments showed that the most potent antibody, BD-368-2, could provide strong therapeutic efficacy and prophylactic protection against SARS-CoV-2.

According to the study, when the BD-368-2 antibody was injected into infected mice, the virus load was decreased by 2,400 times, and when uninfected mice were injected with BD-368-2, they were protected from being infected by the virus.

The potent neutralising antibody could be used to develop drugs for both therapeutic intervention and prophylactic protection against SARS-CoV-2, Xie said.